Saturday, November 24, 2007

Touch and Imagination

Blind Thai knitter wins an award at competition in JapanStory by PENCHAN CHAROENSUTHIPAN

A blind knitter from Thailand used her sense of touch and imagination to guide her to win a silver medal at the 7th International Abilympics in Japan on Nov 17.

Somsuang Kong-ngern, 43, spent almost all her six-hour time slot knitting a hat to a required size. She impressed the judges with her precise calculations and creative pattern. Only two metres of the yarn provided was left unused.

Ms Somsuang was inspired as a child by watching her mother knitting a vest in a spiral pattern from fluffy yarn in beautiful pastel colours.

But her dream of becoming good at knitting faded as she started to lose her sight due to an optic nerve dysfunction and she became completely blind in her teens. She picked up the knitting needles again in her 30s, hoping to make her father a pullover for winter.

But sadly he died of a stroke before he could wear it.

"Knitting is about calculating and adjusting stitches to create a pattern," she said. "It is tough for the blind. We can rely only on our touch to read patterns and spot mistakes. A little confusion could ruin the design and size."